Amplified Animal Aptitude: Difference between revisions

* All the animal characters in Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown's ''Mrs. Murphy'' series.

* The cats in the book (and movie) [[Felidae]] are shown to be able to read and understand how certain machines are used. It's pointed out that learning these things takes time, and that not all cats bother with the task, though just about all of them understand humans.

* ''[[Doctor Dolittle]]'' is a textbook example - he learned how to speak with animals from his parrot, Polynesia, and pretty much every animal has a language.

* The dinosaurs in [[Dinoverse]] all tend to display a lot of intelligence. It would be expected with the main characters, who after all are humans cast back in time and put into dinosaur bodies, but just about everything they encounter that doesn't just try to kill them is ridiculously bright. In the first two books they mostly just have keen senses of emotional intelligence and group dynamics, with understanding of things like jealousy, reconciliation, gratitude, and amicably ending a relationship. Leptoceratopsians are able to use mimicry. The next two books ramp it up. Hypsilophodons help a character collect material to build a raft ''and'' row ''and'' hit a predator with clubs, all just because they watched a human-in-a-Hypsilophodon-body do it. There is also the case of Hook/Junior, a Deinonychus who over the course of less than a week of watching, learns to ''make fire'', splint injured limbs, and is able to, if not read, than at least has some understanding of the markings scratched into rock walls. He also fakes a limp on his own initiative. Hook/Junior, unlike all the others in the series, is noted to be unusually smart by the human characters. It's even implied that saving him and letting him rejoin Deinonychus society leads to dinosaurs surviving to modern times as an entire civilization, in an alternate universe.

** Also Brian's gay cousin, but for some reason, not all of his other relatives.

* Perry the Platypus in ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]''. He can't speak and does nothing but stand around on all fours whenever the kids are around, but when he sneaks away he lives a double life as a secret agent, as do most of the other animals who work at the Agency.

* Who can forget Gromit from [[Wallace and Gromit]]? Arguably he's more of a [[Funny Animal]], but he's clearly more observant and more grounded in reality then his [[Genius Ditz|smart]] but [[Cloudcuckoolander|spacey]] owner Wallace.

** Gromit's a unique case here, though; other dogs don't appear any brighter than a real dog. It may be the case that Gromit gained his intellect by being born an ordinary dog, and having to adapt to his owner.